Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 482

Back in May, I wrote a post about time to market and managing costs in condominium projects . What I wrote then remains true and equally, if not more, important today. But given all the uncertainty that we are continuing to see in the market, I thought I would elaborate on a few points.

It used to be the case, when I first started working on condominium projects back in 2007 or so, that you would go pens down on your design drawings while you launched pre-sales and worked toward meeting your construction financing requirements.

Once you hit 50% sales, or maybe once you completely reached your financing hurdle, you would then call your architect back up and kindly ask them to get started on working drawings.

And the reason you did it this way was because working drawings are kind of expensive and so you wanted to make sure that your sales were going to be there. You were also trying to push as many of your costs out to after you had your construction loan in place so that you had a lower peak equity requirement.

You can't do this today.

Since the beginning of this year, we have seen average high-rise construction costs increase by about 12% in the Greater Toronto Area and, for the balance of this year, some are predicting as much as 4% per month. What this means is that if you wait like the old days, you will likely see costs run away from you and you won't be able to finance your project based on the sales you do have in place.

So what you want to do is not go pens down. Keep going on drawings. Start buying construction (i.e. tendering). And work toward locking in as many of your costs as possible.

How much is ultimately up to you and the exact market conditions at the time. But I know a number of condominium developers now targeting at least 50% tendered, which means securing most of your key contracts: formwork, concrete & rebar supply, windows, M&E, and so on.

A lot of us are hoping that costs will eventually come down and follow certain commodities in the near term. But as our cost consultant effectively said to me this week, "just because the price of cold-formed steel has come down, do you really think you'll be able to walk into a BMW dealership and ask for a deep discount?"

Vox recently profiled what they are calling the deadliest road in America -- a certain section of US-19 running along the Gulf Coast of Florida. It is generally an 8-lane road -- 9 at most intersections -- and so as you might expect, it is place that was designed for cars.

From 2017 to 2022, US-19 saw 34 pedestrian fatalities involving a car for every 100 miles. Indeed, this stat makes it the deadliest highway in the state of Florida for people on foot.

The other telling stat for me is the road's crosswalk spacing. This is a place that is lined with restaurants, hotels, and many other commercial uses, and yet the crosswalks are sometimes spaced miles apart.

This kind of street scale is mind boggling for pedestrians. No one in their right mind is going to go out of their way a mile or two just to cross a road, and so it's no wonder that people are jaywalking and that too many people are getting hit.

I know that our tendency is to try and solve these problems with things like flashing lights, speed radars, and orange flags that people can unceremoniously waive as they cross the street. But at the end of the day, this is an urban design problem.

Spaces that are optimized for cars are, by definition, not optimized for pedestrians. The choice is ours.

Earlier this week, Slate Asset Management and Forum Asset Management submitted a new development proposal for 100 Lombard Street in downtown Toronto.

At the time of writing this post, the applications (zoning by-law amendment and site plan control) hadn't yet hit the city's website. So here's some information about the project, including its big moves:

• This is the first mixed-use residential project in Toronto designed by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) . The proposal includes residential, office, and retail spaces.

• Architecture by OMA and WZMH Architects. Heritage by ERA Architects. Landscape and public realm by Claude Cormier + Associés. Planning by Urban Strategies. Structure by Stephenson Engineering.

• The principal architectural idea is to create a vertical urban village through a series of "urban rooms" interspersed throughout the tower. These spaces would serve as amenities for the building and house a variety of different functions. See above rendering.

• The proposal introduces three important public realm moves: (1) a new public plaza that pays homage to the site's former neighbor to the east -- Second City ; (2) a new mid-block pedestrian connection running north-south from Richmond Street East to Lombard Street; and (3) an outdoor public art gallery featuring oversized art tableaus.

• The site currently houses one designated heritage building (86 Lombard Street), and the design contemplates relocating and fully retaining this building on the eastern edge of the site. Once you see the drawings, you'll fully understand why this was the most logical move.

The entire project team is very excited to get this proposal out and into the world. And we hope that you will see it as being representative of our ongoing and lasting commitment to elevating architecture, sustainability, culture, and city building in Toronto.